more "Anonymous Video Analytics" which is currently deployed in Dublin on-street billboards by a company called Orb with cameras pointing into public spaces. I am very curious whether this is legal under Irish DPA law given that sensitive personal data (your face) is being, while not _stored_ per se, _processed_ by this system without any provision for opt-in/opt-out.

The UK government's failure to deal with spam law in a consumer-friendly way escalates further:

UCAS, the university admissions service, is operating as a mass-mailer of direct marketing on behalf of Vodafone, O2, Microsoft, Red Bull and others, without even a way to later opt out from that spam without missing important admissions-related mail as a side effect.

'Teenagers using Ucas Progress must explicitly opt in to mailings from the organisation and advertisers, though the organisation's privacy statement says: "We do encourage you to tick the box as it helps us to help you."'

Their website also carries advertising, and the details of parents are sold on to advertisers as well.

Needless to say, the toothless ICO say they 'did not appear to breach marketing rules under the privacy and electronic communications regulations', as usual. Typical ICO fail.